West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 30 October 1944, page 4


AFTER THE WAR. MELBOURNE'S BUILDINGS. Overcoming Traffic Problem. Post-war building plans for Melbourne, and some of the attendant problems, were mentioned on Saturday by Cr F. R. Connelly, who is visiting Perth. Or Connelly, who is associated with the grain and transport industries in Victoria, has been a Melbourne city councillor for the past ten years and is a member of the council's post-war building committee. The rebuilding of the western market site to provide 500,000 sq ft of floor space, at a cost of about £1,350,000, is the main project of the committee. To deal with the car parking problem there will be at least two, if not three, underground garages, providing space for every tenant's car.Underground Underground garages, Cr Connelly claims, are the partial solution of a city's traffic problem. That problem is closely akin to city building heights. He explained that if the buildings in the Elizabeth, Swanson, Collins and Bourke streets block went to their full permitted height of 132ft the present population during business hours would be nearly, doubled, with an equivalent increase in motor traffic, particularly in the post-war years. That aspect had greatly alarmed the committee. Advice to Perth. Probably, he said, a city like Perth would be very well advised to consider now the possibility of limiting its building heights to 100ft. He pointed out that London and the European capitals did not now exceed 80ft, with the result that, over the years, they had spread their traffic. He indicated that Sydney, with its narrow streets and building height of 150ft, was facing a very difficult problem which, with the post-war expansion in motor traffic, would become acute. "I would not be surprised if Melbourne decided to decrease the maximum height from 132ft to 100ft," he said. Other projects of the committee included the Eastern Market site, which, it was hoped, would be rebuilt to contain a concert hall accommodating from 6,000 to 8,000 people and several smaller halls. It would also 1 house the council's electrical depart- ] ment. There was talk of building on its roof a planetarium visualising the I whole of the solar system. The prewar cost was about £100,000 and there were only seven or eight in the world. The San Francisco planetarium was visited by 1,000,000 people in its first year, at 1/ a head, with all schoolchildren free. There were other buildings on the programme, notable among them being the debatable one of moving the Town Hall. This, he remarked, seemed to be a problem facing other Australian cities. Melbourne. the second largest municipality in the Empire, said Cr Connelly, was not allowed to think beyond its area of two miles square. In its post-war planning it could go no further than its boundaries without special legislation. The municipality's 3in water mains thus had to connect with anything from the half-inch to one-inch pipes of surrounding authorities. There were sometimes four controlling bodies trying to operate and the situation was farcical in the extreme. This, he considered, was symbolic of the over-government of Australia where, in his opinion, one Australian Parliament and large regional councils would be adequate.